WAITING FOR GODOT

With no identifiable rising action or comforting conclusion, Soulepper Theatre Company delivers canyon sized smiles with Waiting For Godot on stage until October 7, 2017. Unconventional storytelling timed to utter perfection.

MYSTIFIES AND BEGUILES

Long before a 90s TV show called Seinfeld came along to celebrate a ‘show about nothing’, Samuel Beckett was far ahead of storytelling curve with a play that mystifies as much as it beguiles.

‘Never neglect the little things in life,’ Diego Matamoros underscores as Vladimir part way through piece. These six words feel like the direct message the playwright wants to convey to those that exit the theatre wondering what is was exactly they just experienced.

‘Nothing is to be done’ is this irregular staging that never resonates the same way twice when a company tackles the text. It’s perfectly fit for what it attempts to achieve so simplistically.

For this very reason, comical elements of two wandering misfits—one with stinky feet, the other with stinky breath—which includes Oliver Dennis’Estragon anticipating the arrival of a trusted associate named Godot to announce his decision is endlessly amusing. Their ‘immediate future is in his hands’ and it’s impossible to guess how this study of consciousness will laughably play out.

Daniel Brooks has no challenge establishing an awkward alliance between his frontmen that you can’t take your eyes off. Dennis loosens ups with the right amount of irritability with Matamoros serving as a voice of semi-reasoning until his hilariously outburst over the ‘scandal’ before him.

With that said, it’s Rick Roberts fortuitous entrance as eccentric property owner that deepens perspective on this prolonged evening that doesn’t’ seem to deliver the desired results for its ultra-quirky characters. ‘That’s how it is on this bitch of an earth,’ Pozzo explains in a grander view expectation mechanics.

The only thing that’s wrong with this Waiting For Godot is the Soulpepper Theatre taking it’s sweet ol’ time bringing it back for audiences. As always, all is forgiven but let’s hope it’s not another 13 years before it makes its rounds again.